``Yatsu Tomb Village'' (1977 edition) What happened in the midst of the Yokomizo boom and Kadokawa films? [That's when movies were born Vol.3 middle part]

Kosuke Kindaichi in 1977

New Year's Day 1977 began with a bitter cold wave, which caused heavy snowfall mainly in the Hokuriku region. Yokomizo Seishi celebrated the New Year with his son Ryoichi and his family at his home in Seijo. In his diary for that day, he wrote, "(Last year) was a busy year all year round, but I hope this year will be a more relaxed one" (The True Story of Kindaichi Kosuke), but that wish was not fulfilled. The Yokomizo boom reached its peak that year, and Yokomizo's works also began to flourish in the world of film.

On January 8th, Yokomizo received a messenger from Toei saying that they wanted to broadcast Yokomizo's original work, "Ningyo Saichi Torimonochō," as a TV series starring Matsukata Hiroki, from April. In 1965, Matsukata had played the lead role of Ningyo Saichi in NHK's "Taishū Meigaza Ningyo Saichi Torimonochō" for a year. Atsumi Kiyoshi played his subordinate Tatsugorou in that series. After 12 years, "The Village of the Eight Graves," in which Atsumi plays Kindaichi, was finally released in the fall of this year. Although the start of filming had been announced with great fanfare in the summer of the previous year, only less than one-tenth of the total footage had been shot.

Meanwhile, with the lingering impression of the previous year's smash hit "The Inugami Family," Toho was already in production on the second instalment of the series, "The Demon's Ball Song," with the same team of director Ichikawa Kon and Ishizaka Koji as the previous film. Yokomizo was approached about adapting "The Demon's Ball Song" into a film on October 20, 1976, immediately after "The Inugami Family" (1976) was released in theaters. Toho had approached Kadokawa Haruki, president of Kadokawa Shoten, which produced "The Inugami Family," about making it into a series, but as they received no positive response, with Kadokawa's consent, it was decided that "The Demon's Ball Song" would be produced solely by Toho.

I had previously asked Haruki Kadokawa about this point in an interview I conducted with him.

--Why didn't you make "The Devil's Ballad" with Kadokawa Pictures?

Kadokawa: Otherwise people will get bored. You have to constantly bring new things to keep the audience interested.

--It's true that after "The Inugami Family," Kadokawa Films moved on to "Proof of the Man" and "Proof of the Wild," while the Kindaichi films created a new Kindaichi image each time with Toshiyuki Nishida, Ikko Furuya, and Takeshi Kaga. So you didn't touch Toho's Kindaichi series?

Kadokawa: The project is credited as being planned by Kadokawa Haruki Jimusho, but we had no say in what was made into a movie. We held all the film rights to the original work, so we received 10 million yen in addition to the original rights.

It was only after Yokomizo had signed a contract with Toho to adapt The Devil's Ballad that Kadokawa took complete control of the film rights to the original work. In fact, Yokomizo's diary also records that he had signed a film adaptation contract directly with Toho on October 23, 1976, for an original fee of 1.5 million yen, but later torn up the contract and renewed it on November 11 with Kadokawa Haruki Corporation for an original fee of 2 million yen. From then on, film adaptation contracts for Yokomizo's works were made through Kadokawa, which freed Yokomizo from troublesome work, but at the same time it created other problems, but that's a story for another time.

"The Inugami Family" was made in partnership with Toho and Kadokawa Haruki Corporation, which Kadokawa Haruki, president of Kadokawa Shoten, established for the purpose of film production, but "The Demon's Ballad" was produced by Toho Films, a subsidiary of Toho, and although it is difficult to tell because both were distributed by Toho, it can be said that they were made by different companies. This was also the reason why many of the staff were replaced. Filming began on December 26, 1976, but at this point only about 70% of the script was completed. After the New Year's holiday, full-scale filming began on January 13th of the following year in Shikishima-cho, Chukyo-gun, Yamanashi Prefecture (now Kofu City), starting with the scenes featuring Kishi Keiko.

In February, Kindaichi Kosuke also began to appear on television. This was the "Yokomizo Seishi Series" broadcast by Mainichi Broadcasting System. This series began with "The Inugami Family" and continued with the succession of his representative works such as "The Honjin Murder Case", "The Three-Headed Tower", "The Devil Comes and Plays the Flute", and "Gokumon Island". Each work had 3-5 episodes, and the number of episodes was adjusted according to the original work. The production was flexible, with Toho in Tokyo and Eizo Kyoto in Kyoto. On the 4th of the same month, prior to filming, costume tests for Furuya Ikko, who plays Kindaichi, and promotional stills were taken at Daiei Kyoto Studio. Furuya, who showed off his costume for the first time at this event, said, "I'm going to make my own Kindaichi, who seems a bit clueless and unreliable, but who solves the case with brilliant deductions in the end. I'm sure it will be different from Ishizaka's" (Sports Nippon, February 5, 1977), a statement that was conscious of Ishizaka's previous role as Kindaichi.

In a later interview with the author, Furuya said the following about when he started playing Kindaichi:

"I was 33 then, and a production ("Shinsengumi Shimatsuki") was scheduled to air on TBS for six months. The production was to be shot in a studio in Tokyo, but Kindaichi had to go to Kyoto. So I wondered what to do. First of all, I had to decide whether the producer of "Shinsengumi Shimatsuki" would allow me to play Kindaichi. (omitted) But then a generous producer called Yamamoto Kazuo told me, 'If your reputation can be passed on to us, that's a good thing, so go ahead and do it.' So I started living half the week in Kyoto and the other half in Tokyo."

The number of such roles increases for supporting actors. Yoko Takahashi, who played Yura Yasuko in The Devil's Ballad, which was being shot at the Toho Studios in Kinuta, Tokyo around the same time, was also appearing in Kinji Fukasaku's The Hokuriku Proxy War (1977), which was being shot at Toei's Kyoto Studios.

Filming for "Hokuriku Proxy Wars" began on January 24th and is due to open on February 26th. It was a short-term effort, with filming taking place in just over a month, but troubles continued to arise. As the film was based on a real-life gang boss in Fukui Prefecture, the police were unable to grant permission to use roads in Fukui for filming, which was just the beginning of the problems that were causing problems for filming. To make matters worse, Watase Tsunehiko, who played an important role, had an accident in which the jeep he was driving overturned during filming, causing serious injuries to his right leg. Watase was forced to step down, and after much deliberation, Ibuki Goro was chosen to take the role instead.

However, as the film would not be ready in time for the release date, director Sadao Nakajima stepped in to help out and took over as director of B-group. Sports Nippon (February 19, 1977) quotes Fukasaku as saying, "Director Nakajima has worked with lead actor Hiroki Matsukata the most, so I asked him to do it. I'm grateful that he readily accepted the offer, even though it was sudden," and Nakajima as saying, "We help each other out when we're in trouble. I'll be his 'helper,' and I'll support Fukasaku's direction."

Just as filming was finally getting back on track, something strange happened to Takahashi Yoko, following Watase. On February 18th, Takahashi was found dead, floating face up with a watering can in her mouth. This was, of course, filming for "The Devil's Ballad," which took place on a waterfall set on Stage 9 of Toho Studios. Takahashi had been coming down with a cold while traveling between studios in Tokyo and Kyoto, but this water torture finally caused him to develop a fever. Nevertheless, he returned to Kyoto once again and began the final stages of "Hokuriku Proxy War."

On February 21, five days before the film's release, filming began at 9 a.m. for 27 hours straight without sleep. Sets were set up in the studio, each directed by Fukasaku and Nakajima, and the actors went back and forth between the studios according to a meticulous schedule to film the remaining 10 scenes and 100 cuts. Takahashi, who had a fever, wanted to perform the entire film himself, but Fukasaku, concerned about his health, tried to use a voice-over for the scenes where his face was not visible. So he set up a simple bed in the corner of the studio and continued filming while lying down. When filming of the scene between Matsukata and Takahashi was finished at 11:55 a.m. on the 22nd, Fukasaku's voice rang out, saying, "Thank you for your hard work, we're done now." A dozen or so exhausted staff members were seen shaking hands here and there. In this way, they somehow managed to get the film to be released four days later.

On February 24th, two days after the wrap-up of "Hokuriku Proxy War," Kadokawa Haruki was seen in A1 Studio at Daiei Kyoto Studio, located south of Toei Kyoto Studio across the Keifuku Arashiyama Main Line tracks. He had arrived on the first day of filming for "The Inugami Family," the first of the "Yokomizo Seishi Series" in which Furuya Ikko plays Kindaichi (Kadokawa Haruki Corporation is credited with planning cooperation for this series).

The TV version of "The Inugami Family," produced by Eizo Kyoto, which was established by staff from Daiei Kyoto, saw Ichikawa Kon as its rival. For the former Daiei Kyoto staff, who had worked with Ichikawa on "Enjo" (1958) and "Kagi" (1959) during their time at Daiei, as well as the TV series "Kogarashi Monjiro," Ichikawa was an ideal virtual opponent. For Nishioka, who served as the head of Eizo Kyoto and also served as art director, Ichikawa had offered him the position of art director for the film version of "The Inugami Family," but had turned it down due to scheduling conflicts, so he could not afford to lose.

The art costs for the Inugami family mansion, built on a huge stage, were 10 million yen. The Inugami family crest was engraved on the 16 glass doors in the long corridor, costing 30,000 yen each. This crest, designed with the image of treasure and god, is also painted on the ceiling of the inner room. The Inugami family's three heirlooms, the "Axe Kotogiku," were created based on the shape of an ancient mirror and cost a total of 400,000 yen. The gold clock used as a prop was borrowed from the Omi Shrine Clock Museum, and other details were enhanced using a different approach from the film. In addition, the use of Daiei Kyoto Studios allowed the lavish use of heritage from film history. The corner metal fittings of the casual swinging doors were reused from a Kenji Mizoguchi film, bringing a sense of thickness to the screen that exceeded the budget.

Haruki, who visited the set, said, "We were able to bring to life Kyo Machiko's role as Matsuko, who was played in the film, and the set has a heavy feel that is traditionally hand-made by Daiei and Eizo Kyoto. It's great, isn't it?" (Sports Nippon, February 25, 1977). He revealed that the role of Matsuko, which was played by Takamine Mieko in Ichikawa Kon's film version, was initially offered to Kyo Machiko but she turned it down, but she praised Eizo Kyoto's elaborate art and visuals.

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